RAST MÜZİKOLOJİ DERGİSİ Uluslararası Müzikoloji Dergisi www.rastmd.com MISIRLI AHMET: THE CLAY DARBUKA TECHNIQUE AND ITS PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS Esra Karaol1 Nilgün Doğrusöz2 ABSTRACT Although its roots are seen in ancient times and despite the fact that it plays a huge role in the historical developments of Turkish and world music, the darbuka and its performance have not been extensively taken under musicological studies. This article is about the performance analysis of the darbuka techniques developed by Misirli Ahmet and studied under the light of the fact that the existing musical discourse has been transferred from teacher to student through ages orally. Parallel to the cultural changes, the advancement of civilizations throughout the course of history, the emergence of the instrument has shown differences. Therefore the material of the clay darbuka has been the most important factor affecting the different techniques of playing the instrument. The reason why we emphasize on the performance analysis is that it is of fundamental importance to make observations and decipher its characteristics within the discipline of musical theory. Keywords: Mısırlı (Egyptian) Ahmet, clay darbuka, split finger technique. MISIRLI AHMET: TOPRAK DARBUKA TEKNİĞİ VE İCRA ANALİZİ ÖZET Kökleri antik çağlara kadar dayandırılmasına, günümüze kadar Türk ve dünya müziklerinin tarihsel sürecinde önemli rolü olmasına rağmen, darbuka ve icrası müzikoloji çalışmalarında kapsamlı ele alınmamıştır. Müzikal tekniğin ustadan çırağa sözlü aktarım ve görsel öğrenim geleneği ile iletilmiş olduğu tespit edilmiştir. Toprak darbuka çalgısı üzerinde şekillenen, darbuka icracısı Mısırlı Ahmet’in geliştirdiği tekniğin icra 1 Yardımcı Doçent Doktor, Istanbul Üniversitesi Devlet Konservatuarı, Mirgün Köşkü-Emirgan & Türkiye, [email protected] 2 Profesör Doktor, Istanbul Teknik Üniversitesi, TMDK-Maçka & Türkiye, [email protected] 50 Mısırlı Ahmet: The Clay Darbuka Technique and Its Performance Analysis bağlamında analiz edildiği kısımlar vurgulanmaktadır. Tarihsel süreç içerisindeki kültürel değişimler ve uygarlıkların gelişmesine paralel olarak, çalgının ortaya çıkış süreci değişim göstermiştir. Materyali, icra tekniğinin değişimine etki eden en önemli faktör olmuştur. İcra analizine vurgu yapılmasının sebebi, toprak darbuka ile Mısırlı Ahmet tekniği arasındaki bağın önemi ile icra yapısıdır. Müzik teorisi disiplini düzleminde inceleme ve değerlendirme yapılması çalışmanın temel amaçları arasındadır. Çalışmanın belirleyici öğelerinden biri, darbuka icracısı olarak tekniği dünyada “split- finger technique” olarak bilinen, darbuka çalgısının icrasında yepyeni bir sayfa açan tekniğin analitik olarak incelenmesidir. Tekniğe dair hareketleri belirlemeye hizmet eden sembolik işaretlerle, standart tespit oluşturulması hedeflenmiştir. İncelenen metodik yaklaşımlarda herhangi modern notalama sistemine göre oluşturulmuş kapsamlı notasyona rastlanmadığından, tekniğe özgü vuruş ve hareketlerin oluşturduğu ritmik motiflerin notaya alınmasında tanımlayıcı ifadeler kullanılarak, teknik çerçevesinde çalgının nasıl icra edildiğini tanımlayan özel işaretlere başvurulmuştur. Çalgıya dair vuruşlardan türemiş ritimler yaygın geleneksel gösterimlerinden faydalanılarak, Mısırlı Ahmet tekniğinin etkileri ile birlikte analiz edilmiştir. Anahtar Kelimeler: Mısırlı Ahmet, toprak darbuka, Mısırlı Ahmet tekniği (split finger technique). INTRODUCTION It is considered that the oldest examples of instruments date from 4000 BC from Mesopotamia. “After humanity first discovered music through the voice, the rhythm was incorporated with the help of the first example of the drum, made of wood and with skins attached to the both ends of its round shaped edges (Dinçol, 1999: passim).” It is seen that these instruments have largely been made of clay in different cultures. Especially besides Asia Minor and Near Asia, clay is known to be used by the Central and South America, Africa and Australia. Percussion instruments are known to form an important part of the most ancient instruments. As with almost all instruments belonging to the family of percussion from past to present, the drums seen in Anatolia (until around 1100 BC in the Babel civilization), Central Asia and North Africa are considered to be precursors to darbuka. Roman (Gypsy) musicians are largely responsible as a force in the spread of this instrument in the Middle East and East Europe. In ancient times we can also see wide drums and other forms of drums that could be forefathers of the goblet shaped drums. In ancient inscriptions goblet shaped drums can also be seen in figures. “A drum with a monolithic skin found in central Europe in the late Neolithic and early Bronze ages, within the context of modern drums seems to bear a striking resemblance to the Egyptian tabla which is played with hands and has gained popularity in North Africa, Middle East, Turkey, Andalucía and Balkans under different names (Aiano, 2006: 96-105).” Darbuka is considered to be a restructured Hittite instrument though certainly used much before Hittites as well. Also, Assyrian archeological remains also show that this instrument can be dated back to 1700 BC. Finally it should not be overlooked that since these artifacts are only remnants without any writing document value and that these should only be seen as wordless pieces of evidence. “While different nomenclatures have been applied to this instrument in different countries, the most common used terms are dümbek, darbuka and tabla. But the word tabla used here 51 Karaol, E.& Doğrusöz, N. Rast Musicology Journal Volume II, Issue 1 (2014), s.50-67 must not be confused with the vessel drum of India (Hall, 2006:36).” Darbuka is an instrument used in theatric and classical music’s of some Middle East countries and also being extensively used in these countries’ popular music whereas it is most associated with belly dancing. “Despite the fact that darbuka actually can reproduce all the time cycles, their variants, all forms of their melismas and many other things which the Ottoman-Turkish classical music writers have put into account, somehow this instrument is ignored in relation to kudüm, whereas it far surpasses it with its tonality and other possibilities and has largely been considered as being lowly, as an instrument appealing to popular music of the undistinguishable masses.” (Behar, 2008: 104) Darbuka has largely been named as dümbelek in the Turkish history and was not considered any further than a simple folk instrument due to its fragile body and tuning problems. Although it took a more mature standard shape in passing ages, it still was not used in Turkish classical music due to its sharp sound, over embellished playing methods and long resonations. Darbuka has only started gaining a place in Turkish music with the onset of 20th century but due to reasons we have given it found a more solid place within Turkish folk music. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries darbuka was also given space in some western classical music pieces. For example, one of the first pieces of music that the goblet shaped drums were being used was Hector Berlioz’ The Trojans (1869) where darbuka was played in the part of the Nubian Slaves’ Dance. “Darbuka has been a very popular instrument in Istanbul’s popular city music since 1930s. In Turkish classical music it was also used until the end of 16th century (Özalp, 2000: 161).” The instrument was first widely introduced to the professional musicians’ circles with Hasan Tahsin Parsadan (1900-1954) in the republic period. The clay darbuka form has initially been used in Arabic countries but with musical interactions it has also started gaining popularity among Turkish musicians since1980s. At first it was not met with much enthusiasm as it was almost impossible to play it with the resident technique of playing the copper Turkish darbuka. But after Misirli Ahmet has discovered his new playing technique which was a perfect fit for this instrument and as he elevated it up to worldwide level with impeccable virtuosity having his name heard internationally besides Egypt and Turkey, the instrument regained popularity and actually sidelined the copper darbuka. Darbuka actually has gained importance with the rise of the ethnic music’s especially since the 90s and with the spreading of Misirli Ahmet’s technique, the Egyptian clay darbukas came to be in demand in Turkey. This technique is very different than the “fiske” technique that was being used before because the curvy rim of the clay darbuka (known as tabla in Arabic countries which also is the name given generally to drums and also as dümbek) is radically different than the copper darbukas but with Misirli Ahmet’s technique its practice has been accepted and popularized. We have previously stated that despite the fact that this technique has such an indelible effect over the darbuka instrument and its practitioners, there has not been any extensive research on this issue before. This is mostly because this instrument has been overlooked and looked down upon by the academic music circles and also by a part of the public despite the fact that it has been for many ages all along. With this study, the darbuka instrument and issues concerning its practice have been aimed to be opened to academical discussions. In this research, practical and theoretical musicology, sociological and anthropological music theory and field research methods have been applied in order to 52 Mısırlı Ahmet: The Clay Darbuka Technique and Its Performance